Conoco sells off natural gas wells for $67M

Contango acquires company’s assets in Wind River Basin

ConocoPhillips has sold its natural gas wells in the Wind River Basin of Wyoming to Contango Oil & Gas Co. for $67 million.

Contango on Tuesday said it acquired natural gas reserves of about 446 billion cubic feet from the Houston-based independent exploration and production giant.

The Fort Worth-based producer funded its acquisition with cash on hand and through its revolving credit line.

“We feel fortunate to have been able to acquire these Proved Developed Producing-heavy assets at a discount to the proved producing reserve value and believe that we can further enhance the value of the assets through Contango’s track record of optimizing cash flow and reserves on acquired assets,” Contango CEO Wilkie Colyer said in a statement. “We continue to be on the lookout for similar, additional acquisition opportunities in this target-rich environment.”

Contango has been on a shopping spree during the pandemic oil bust.

The company last year acquired Mid-Con Energy Partners in an all-stock deal with an enterprise value of $400 million, and in June, announced plans to merge with Independence Energy to create an oil and gas company worth about $5.7 billion.

ConocoPhillips over the past year also has been consolidating companies and streamlining its business to weather the downturn.

The company last year sold its assets and operations in Western Australia to Santos in a nearly $1.3 billion deal, and in January it completed a $9.7 billion acquisition of Concho Resources.

The wells being sold to Contango by ConocoPhillips produce about 78 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.